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July/August Challenge Entry: The Indigo Plateau

There is perhaps no sport simultaneously more commonplace and more magical than the contest and spectacle that is the Pokemon Battle. And there is almost certainly no place better for Trainers to develop and hone their skills than the Indigo Plateau. Sitting on the divide between Kanto and Johto, cliffs fall away on three sides while harsh mountains rise to the north.

While some book time on the public fields, others hope for acceptance into a tournament that will take them to the Elemental Fields, and perhaps on to a match in the great Indigo Stadium itself. Trainers taking the traditional Pokemon journey will emerge from Victory Road in front of the Tower of the Elite Four, into a place that once was quiet, but since the construction of the great highway, Route 0, has become the jewel of the road and one of the busiest places on it. Increasingly, many of the most talented and dedicated (and wealthy) Trainers instead choose to attend one of the two highly prestigious Pokemon schools on the Plateau, the Lance Academy of Pokemon and the Cynthia School of Pokemon Battling, both run by former League Champions.

### Latest WIP ###

This is the concept sketch. I'll be going over it in Inkscape, then I'll finalise the layout and check everything's to scale (my roads are probably too wide for example), before I start to work on the visual appearance.

I'm taking a different approach to this, doing a town map rather than a building one and having magical schools present (and their grounds depicted) but not the sole focus of the map.

Heh, this is harder than I expected. Not got very far in Inkscape, I've done the field outlines and the roads.
### Latest WIP ###

I've had to take some artistic license with the road markings, if I did them true to scale they'd be too hard to see, so they're actually about a foot wide. The roads themselves are true scale, without sidewalks or shoulders at the moment. Views on what the result looks like are welcomed.

I have to say I really like the idea. As a boy I didn't like the TV series very much but I got addicted to the Gameboy versions.
Just a few months ago I had some fun on an emulator with them and the Indigo Plateau was always on of my favorite places to level up ;-)

I really like the sketch. I really hope you finish this as it has all the hallmarks of being a stunner.

I wouldn't fret about taking artistic license with scale - as I see it one of the whole points of drawing maps is to exaggerate those things of importance and to leave out those of no relevance so the map does what you want it to.

I'm still in the Challenge!

### Latest WIP ###

I started to get the hang on Inkscape. This latest WIP has, importantly, all the major elements. Apart from walls, trees, and a few other features everything is depicted. The "content" is done, what's left is style.

(Incidentally, the building at the top surrounded by roads is the Magnet Train Station. The tracks run in tunnels right under the Plateau.)

I'm seeing two possible directions from here. (Well, actually three; the third is that I do nothing further!)

One is to try and make it look better. Replace the flat colours with some nice textures mainly. I have a question on that - how to convey height of buildings. I haven't decided on precise heights, but the E4 Tower is probably taller than the Empire State Building.

An alternative idea I've had, however, is to "bring it to life". The highway packed with vehicles, people strolling on the paths, Pokemon battles raging on the fields.

Which way do people think I should go? (I doubt I'll have time to do both.)

looks good. At that scale people would be dots and even cars would be rather small so I'd go with the heigth version first ... the normal way to convey height would be to use shadows - different length would show different heights. However, you could also make an insert with the city seen from the side instead.